Saturday, January 17, 2009

MRA Trolls: Voices of Dissent

A little blog background on myself: I used to have a blog containing about 20 different posts. I was starting to gain a bit of popularity amongst MRA bloggers, and really thought I was on my way to raising awareness about Men's Rights.

I spent a lot of time on that blog. Then one day I made the mistake of sparking debate on a feminist blog and, like magic, my blog suddenly vanished and my password no longer worked. I became busy in real life and didn't have time to make a new blog, until now.

This was one of the only posts which I saved in an email to myself. I decided it still holds pertinence, so I'm reposting it here:

It pleases me that so many men are speaking out against the ideas these feminists are presenting. While it is true that some of us could do it in a more mature way *coy grin*, I am more interested not in what these "trolls" are saying in particular, nor in the way they present their dissent, but in the fact that dissent is indeed there. And it is growing.

The number of anti-feminist blogs, and miscellaneous blogs that contain anti-feminist writings, have been growing over the years. More and more information is becoming available that debunks and refutes feminist claims, rational, and logic.

MRA groups, pigeon-holed as "masculists" by the media, have even been taken to court. Public awareness is growing.

First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you.

At first, the feminists largely ignored the blogs. There were only a few of them, and many of their writings were reactionary and "misogynistic". As it was the most irate and disgruntled men who began to speak out in inflammatory ways, this was largely true. At first. But these men did something important: they sparked discussion and thought amongst other men. More mature men. More professional men. Each man who was divorced and taken for a ride financially in court. Each man who had his child ripped from him. Each man who has had to pay unfair and exorbitant child support sometimes in excess of $600 dollars a week; exceeding the cost of living when he was married, even! Each man who has been burned by the current Gynocentric Feminist Society, who may have ignored the blogs years earlier, began to read, research, and educate himself. And every man, tired of seeing men on TV portrayed as ignorant, oafish morons who are subject to the authority of their intelligently portrayed wives who has gone on Google and typed "reverse sexism" or "male-bashing".

And the blogs began to increase in number. Men began to post vlogs on Youtube. As the voices of dissent grew, feminists responded with dismissal, ad hominem attacks, and flaming.

And that is what the feminists on these blogs are currently doing. If you post something contrary to feminism, voice disagreement, or find an error or flaw in a statistic or in the logic, they will find a reason to delete your post. They will find some real or imagined slight, insult, or patronization, and cite that as the reason the comment was deleted. And they will never pay any mind to their own insults, flaming, and the insults and flaming posted by other Feminists. As two Feminist exchanged: Maria - "What particularly pompous patronising asses" Dirtyrottenfeminist - "Maria-- You rock. These guys are just gonna blast anyone that disagrees with THEM and try to turn around on us. As long as we are united, we are strong." Apparently, it's okay for them to team up and bully a man with a different opinion. But it's not okay for a man to disagree with Feminism.

Of course, if you point this out, the feminists stoop down to the ultimate cop-out: "It's my blog, I can do whatever I want."

Never mind that feminists criticize the "Patriarchal" idea of "might makes right"- that is, when it's not in their favor. But when it is in their favor, it seems to be perfectly alright.

Then you win.

But as the voices of dissent grow, and grow they shall, it will be harder for feminists to just dismiss us all as "angry men", or as "trolls". They will be forced to address the inconsistencies, the dis-logic, the dis-rationale, and the flat out lies that feminist thinking is filled with. And they will have to answer for every child without a father, and their contribution to violence, crime, and poverty in America.

And it will be at this point in time that feminist thinking, forced to look at itself in a critical light, will simply implode.

Trolling

Yes, there may be a problem with trolling, with men (and sometimes women) posting inflammatory comments and responses to blogs. However, this isn't the "real issue", as my friend Feministgal is so fond of saying. The real issue is this: The voices of dissent are growing and speaking out more and more. This is just a sign of things to come. And these feminists are scared shitless.

"It pleases me that so many men are speaking out against the ideas these feminists are presenting. While it is true that some of us could do it in a more mature way *coy grin*, I am more interested not in what these "trolls" are saying in particular, nor in the way they present their dissent, but in the fact that dissent is indeed there. And it is growing."

For a long while, I have been arguing that the time for argument is past. Granted that the growing dissent is a good sign; it pleases me too! But we need to take it to the next level by NOT putting so much energy into *arguing* with feminists. Rather, we should put our energy into spreading the word, growing OUR movement, RECRUITING!!

When we have gathered sufficient numbers, we can roll right over them and make them a part of the tarmac. . .

Personally, I haven't got the patience to argue with these people! It makes my brain glaze over, and makes me feel like I am wasting my life. . . :(

Yes, mostly it's pointless to argue you with them. If you do get past the belligerent drivel and shaming tactics and actually corner them or, god forbid, win the argument and make them look bad, they'll delete you.

But it does put the seeds of doubt in their own minds ("Oh shit, he was right. Well, anyway, carrying on...") and shows them more and more men are standing up. ("Another one...") The fact that trolling was enough to raise a serious concern across the feminist blog sphere shows that progress is being made and we have them apprehensive.

They're even now going through the initial motions of paving the internet into a uniform Politically Correct zone.

Exactly. Why "addess women's issues" at all? They have not ever taken a male perspective that was in any way pro-male, and currently see no need to either. I say fair enough, because we're doing it instead.

But with that comes the admonition that Feminists have no right, absolutely ZERO right, to mitigate, dictate, "correct", or otherwise "inform" MRA's. Now, I say that like we're some kind of actual organization, but really since we're loosly affiliated the promotion of this viewpoint is a good idea. Spillover into general society would be beneficial as well.

I do think the time has come to try and develop a "Men's Studies" curriculum, widely distributed. We may not be able to get it into actual Universities...but with the Internet, the ease of obtaining the reading materials, and the general inherent worthlessness of a Gender Studies degree, this might be a good approach to educating those that are interested, providing an Academic foundation to move forward with, and a repository of knowledge that will be nigh on impossible to "hide".

I think in the future, there will still be Gender Studies classes. But I think they will change, and teach the importance of gender roles in society. I also think that biology professors will no longer be afraid to teach about the very real, scientifically proven differences in men's brains and women's brains.

Most contemporary feminists, such as Jessica Valenti, are setting themselves up to look horribly foolish. They approach the subject with such enthusiasm, with such vehemence against anyone who disagrees with them.

Scholars know there's a problem. Social researchers know there's a problem. Teachers know there's a problem. Even single-moms can't deny there's a problem. Men, most of all, are looking around the world they're presented and either giving up or saying "Damn, that's fucked up." As more men speak, as more research is published, it'll come into the public eye. And it will be taken seriously. When that time comes, women like Jessica Valenti will look so foolish because not only will they be behind the times, but they will be behind the times with such mindless, clueless enthusiasm.

You're right: It truly is up to men. If the feminists ever do acknowledge a problem in the male sphere, they'll chalk it up to be somehow "men's fault" and that men somehow have to change in some way.

Feminists will look so stupid when men stand up for true equality. Heh, maybe they'll even follow in line with us. Either way, change is inevitable.

I think I'll get onto some kind of reading list, maybe with a commentary or some unifying theme... I haven't had a lot of exposure to MRA writing, to be honest. I've heard the audio to Myth of Male Power on the net, but outside of ordering these books on Amazon, there's no way I'll ever see them at the local bookstore...not YET anyway...

Of course, I would need to pay close attention to Feminist teachings, to make sure everything I reccommend is in acceptable..../scarcasm

It's an idea in the hopper...if you have suggestions, throw em at me either on my blog, youtube, or email. :)

Actually Factory, there is great hope: You can indeed buy the Myth of Male Power at Border's. Barnes & Noble, however, typically has to order it for you - and if you deal with men only, you'll probably receive it. (The first time I tried, I dealt with women and the order was "mispleaced" - I dealt with the manager who thankfully enough was a man and he found it... interestingly enough...)

You could have emailed me - my email is made public. If you truly were concerned about your profile being linked, you would have just emailed me. Again, power trip somewhere else. Being a woman gets you no special privileges here. Also, my old profile was linked on feministgal's blog, and when I asked for it to be removed, I was *ignored* - so count your blessings that I'm even humoring you with a reply. Good day.

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About Me

This blog serves two purposes: One, a place for my writings on feminism, men's rights, and sometimes life in general.
Second, it is a place for links to other MRA blogs, and anti-feminist literature and writings. I will never publish a link to an article or website that I have not personally read and approved of.